How can I do well at GCSE?

8

I began my GCSE courses just under a year ago and have about 2 years left. I'm wondering what sorts of things I can do during the course to ensure that I will do well in the final exam?
I study:
Maths
Statistics
Higher Maths (that begins in a year)
Triple Science
English language and lit
French
History
Psychology
Business Studies
If anyone has any advice, please feel free to share.

Reply 1

Kingston Reps

Official Rep

15

Original post by Bumblebee2023

I began my GCSE courses just under a year ago and have about 2 years left. I'm wondering what sorts of things I can do during the course to ensure that I will do well in the final exam?
I study:
Maths
Statistics
Higher Maths (that begins in a year)
Triple Science
English language and lit
French
History
Psychology
Business Studies
If anyone has any advice, please feel free to share.

Hi @Bumblebee2023

It's great that you are already starting to think about what you can do to prepare for exams as the more time you have to prepare the better.

I would suggest maybe at the end of each day going over your notes or what you have learnt in lessons and potentially rewriting your notes. I would also say doing this after you have completed a topic. Having all your notes clear and in one place makes it much easier to revise when it comes to it.

Or put the content into flashcards then when you come to revising you don't have to waste time making revision material.

Also every now and again you could do a practice paper then you will be more comfortable with doing exams and be quicker at answering questions in exam time.

Make the most of the homework your teachers give you, even adding another similar question like the one they set as extra. Often teachers are happy to mark extra work and ask them if there is anything extra you could be doing.

I hope this helps and good luck :smile:

-Grace (Kingston Rep)

Reply 2

jess.wakefield

2

i just finished my gcses this year and I didn't really revise until the last year or a few months before that but it is always good to start revising subjects early. first I would say to just know what exam boards you are doing and if you can buy revision books or flashcards. my favourite books have always been CGP.
maths- Corbett maths has revision videos and questions, maths genie, first class maths, Cognito are also good websites for revision videos. maths genie also has a section for past papers
triple science- free science lessons, cognito, primrose kitten, scienceshorts and dr de bruin all have good revision videos. for past papers, revision science is the best place to go. also physics and maths tutor have flashcards, mindmaps and practice questions. studymind is also a good website too
french- listening to french music and watching french films is supposed to help with the listening part of the course. for reading, it is mostly about learning how to pick out key words from the text. writing mostly gets better with practice and also knowing your tenses very well
business- for business i would mostly recommend just learning the exam technique and how to tackle the questions. also flashcards are good for revising the content and learning calculations
in general, i would say seneca is good for a brief overview and quizlet is a good way to make flashcards online or you can use gizmo which is a website that generates flashcards. there is also the normal websites like bitesize or savemyexams. as you still have 2 years left, i wouldn't overly revise unless you want to get a head start depending on what grades you are aiming for

Reply 3

username6543429

OP

8

Thank you for all of your replies.

Reply 4

username6543429

OP

8

Original post by jess.wakefield

i just finished my gcses this year and I didn't really revise until the last year or a few months before that but it is always good to start revising subjects early. first I would say to just know what exam boards you are doing and if you can buy revision books or flashcards. my favourite books have always been CGP.
maths- Corbett maths has revision videos and questions, maths genie, first class maths, Cognito are also good websites for revision videos. maths genie also has a section for past papers
triple science- free science lessons, cognito, primrose kitten, scienceshorts and dr de bruin all have good revision videos. for past papers, revision science is the best place to go. also physics and maths tutor have flashcards, mindmaps and practice questions. studymind is also a good website too
french- listening to french music and watching french films is supposed to help with the listening part of the course. for reading, it is mostly about learning how to pick out key words from the text. writing mostly gets better with practice and also knowing your tenses very well
business- for business i would mostly recommend just learning the exam technique and how to tackle the questions. also flashcards are good for revising the content and learning calculations
in general, i would say seneca is good for a brief overview and quizlet is a good way to make flashcards online or you can use gizmo which is a website that generates flashcards. there is also the normal websites like bitesize or savemyexams. as you still have 2 years left, i wouldn't overly revise unless you want to get a head start depending on what grades you are aiming for

Thank you for the tips.
I know it sounds very optimistic, but I would love to get as many 9s as possible.

Reply 5

jess.wakefield

2

Original post by Bumblebee2023

Thank you for the tips.
I know it sounds very optimistic, but I would love to get as many 9s as possible.

getting 9s is very achievable, one of my friends got all 9s in her year 11 mocks because her work paid off so if you revise im sure you can get 9s in most if not all of your subjects. good luck!

Reply 6

elliefitz

12

I didn't study my GCSE's due to Covid-19. However, when I would revise for them I found it really helpful to use past papers and test myself using those. It enabled me to get a good idea on what I was good at and what I needed to work on, I would then work on the ones I didn't do well in.

As well as this, textbooks are a lifesaver! I purchased mine second hand from eBay as they were cheaper but they helped me learn so much.

Reply 7

Muttley79

20

Original post by Bumblebee2023

I began my GCSE courses just under a year ago and have about 2 years left. I'm wondering what sorts of things I can do during the course to ensure that I will do well in the final exam?
I study:
Maths
Statistics
Higher Maths (that begins in a year)
Triple Science
English language and lit
French
History
Psychology
Business Studies
If anyone has any advice, please feel free to share.

Two years left? Most schools teach GCSE in two years!!

What is Higher Maths? There isn't a separate GCSE called that.

Reply 8

username6543429

OP

8

Original post by Muttley79

Two years left? Most schools teach GCSE in two years!!
What is Higher Maths? There isn't a separate GCSE called that.

Yes, my school teaches GCSEs from yr9
Also, thank you for pointing that out. I was meant to put "Further" maths opposed to "higher". Thank you 😂

Reply 9

Muttley79

20

Original post by Bumblebee2023

Yes, my school teaches GCSEs from yr9
Also, thank you for pointing that out. I was meant to put "Further" maths opposed to "higher". Thank you 😂

Why do they do that? It's not recommended and Ofsted actively discourage three year GCSEs.

Don't bother with level 2 FMaths [it's not a GCSE] and wastes time on other subjects - why that and Stats as well?! [I teach Maths btw]

Download the specifications and make sure your school covers everything.

Reply 10

username6543429

OP

8

Original post by Muttley79

Why do they do that? It's not recommended and Ofsted actively discourage three year GCSEs.
Don't bother with level 2 FMaths [it's not a GCSE] and wastes time on other subjects - why that and Stats as well?! [I teach Maths btw]
Download the specifications and make sure your school covers everything.

Idk why they teach it over a 3 year period. I've never understood why.
My teachers have advised that I take stats and further maths. They've also been telling us that they are both GCSEs.
Thank you for the advice

Reply 11

Muttley79

20

Original post by Bumblebee2023

Idk why they teach it over a 3 year period. I've never understood why.
My teachers have advised that I take stats and further maths. They've also been telling us that they are both GCSEs.
Thank you for the advice

It's too many GCSE - and Further Maths is not a GCSE its a level 2 qualification ie a GCSE equivalent - so they arent being truthful with you.

I teach in a selective school and we don't do this level 2 FMaths yet we get brilliant results. There's topics in this that aren't in A level Maths!

Reply 12

daisy.ch2

14

Original post by Muttley79

Why do they do that? It's not recommended and Ofsted actively discourage three year GCSEs.
Don't bother with level 2 FMaths [it's not a GCSE] and wastes time on other subjects - why that and Stats as well?! [I teach Maths btw]
Download the specifications and make sure your school covers everything.

my school also teaches it over a 3 year period but only for some units or geography and history, sciences and rs and maths- this might be due to the fact it is a grammar school though but i do not know why. i would love to know why you as a maths teacher discourages doing further maths? also, different schools have different availabilities of subjects/ teachers so statistics might just be one that many other teachers can teach too.

Reply 13

Muttley79

20

Original post by daisy.ch2

my school also teaches it over a 3 year period but only for some units or geography and history, sciences and rs and maths- this might be due to the fact it is a grammar school though but i do not know why. i would love to know why you as a maths teacher discourages doing further maths? also, different schools have different availabilities of subjects/ teachers so statistics might just be one that many other teachers can teach too.

A Grammar should not need to take three years to teach GCSE! A few have been downgraded by Ofsted for doing this ...

We don't teach level 2 Further Maths because we want students to have high grades in their weaker GCSEs and not get unnecessary 'extra' subjects. Straight 9s is the aim.

We teach the whole GCSE spec [some schools don't or skate over hard topics] and go slightly beyond to mention where topics go at A level - we see no point in teaching topics not in A level e.g. matrices. We also do lots of enrichment activities which we've found better prep for A level.

Reply 14

daisy.ch2

14

Original post by Muttley79

A Grammar should not need to take three years to teach GCSE! A few have been downgraded by Ofsted for doing this ...
We don't teach level 2 Further Maths because we want students to have high grades in their weaker GCSEs and not get unnecessary 'extra' subjects. Straight 9s is the aim.
We teach the whole GCSE spec [some schools don't or skate over hard topics] and go slightly beyond to mention where topics go at A level - we see no point in teaching topics not in A level e.g. matrices. We also do lots of enrichment activities which we've found better prep for A level.